


recover

by beanpod



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Slash, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23502619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beanpod/pseuds/beanpod
Summary: Maybe teaming up to save the world together and nearly-almost-dying is good cause for trust, or something close to it.Who would’ve thought.
Relationships: Kimberly Hart/Trini
Comments: 5
Kudos: 67





	recover

**Author's Note:**

> been a fan of pr for twenty-five years, this movie's been out for three, and it took a lockdown for me to finally sit through it. i gotta admit 2017 zordon basically whining when realizing he's dealing with teenagers as opposed to 1993 zordon specifically asking for five overbearing and overemotional humans had me in tears for ten minutes.
> 
> with that said, apparently i would lay down my own life for this version of trini as well.

After— after Rita and Goldar and getting the zords back in the mountain (which is a lot harder than it actually sounds considering there’s Zack to deal with) and after letting Jason drive them all back still battered and shaky in Billy’s mom’s new car and they all have to deal with equally shaky but mostly un-battered parents— Trini sits in the middle of the remains of her bedroom and cries.

Oh, it’s a whole fucking _lot_ — Trini hasn’t cried herself tired in a long time. She comes out the end of it less shaky and a lot sleepier and it isn’t until one of the twins pokes his head through the door and asks if she wants Cheetos that she, groggy, sort of snaps out of it.

She smiles at Patrick and pulls herself to her feet. “You know what, I would trade _you_ for some Cheetos right now.”

Patrick looks at her funny but he grins back anyway and runs off to get the Cheetos, so Trini runs after him, too.

-

School closes due city restorations for two weeks. Jason texts the group chat, _i cannot spend two weeks at home with nothing to do, guys_ and Trini agrees wholeheartedly, because there’s only so much restoration one can do on their own.

So Zack suggests, _you guys wanna meet up at pit_ and there’s a string of debate that Trini doesn’t participate in but avidly follows while stealing gummy worms from Dave while they watch cartoons in the living room.

Then in comes Billy with, _i’m grounded because of the van_ and Kimberly’s _hey guys how about volunteering at the shelter ?_

Trini nods though they can’t see her, so next morning finds all five of them signing up for volunteer work at the shelter, where a good number of families struggle with the aftermath of a gutted city and the five of them struggle with the aftermath of everything else.

“My mom says this won’t take time out of my sentence,” Billy tells them off-handedly as they follow one of the lead volunteers through the shelter so they can collect their vests and name tags.

“Sounds like a smart woman,” Zack says.

“I’m not allowed near her car now, you know. Wants me to either take the bus or walk; I’m grounded and can’t go out so her logic isn’t all that sound.” Billy wrinkles his nose and turns to look at Trini. “How’s your renovation coming along?”

“Oh, it’s great,” she deadpans with a roll of eyes. “Considering I have two seven-year-olds helping me out, we should be done by 2030. Easy peasy.”

“We could give you a hand, you know,” Kimberly says with a grin, nudging their elbows together as they walk and before Trini can profusely refuse, Jason jumps in with, “Oh, _yes_ , please let us help you out, Trini.”

Trini should say no. It’s never been hard for her to say no to this kind of thing.

“Sure, yeah,” she says, looking away and taking a bright green vest from their volunteering team leader, “after this, maybe.”

-

Mom looks at her funny when she returns home and Trini tells her she was doing volunteer work when asked where she’s been all morning.

“I didn’t know that’s a thing you were interested in doing,” she says. She passes Trini a basket of bread as they set the table.

“It wasn’t until my friends brought it up,” Trini says honestly, and looks away at the baffled expression on mom’s face. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Friends,” mom echoes, a soft look in her eyes that sort of makes Trini want to haul ass out of there. “In plural. How nice.”

“ _Nice_ ,” Trini echoes, rolling her eyes and shaking her head, “is not what you’ll be saying when they steam-roll in later today to help with my room and the attic and make puppy eyes at you until you feed them.”

Cat’s out of the bag now, Trini thinks. Better break the news that there will be, in fact, four super-powered teenagers arriving after lunch to help out with what has become sort of a sibling activity with Trini’s dad poking in to supervise from time to time. Trini leaves out the super-powered part, though.

“Huh,” mom says, looking around the kitchen. “Should I make cookies?”

“Yes!” Dave and Patrick yell from where they’ve been playing on the patio. “With chocolate chips and blueberries,” Patrick adds.

Trini snorts, “There’s a sugar rush if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Maybe not cookies,” mom says. She nods, pats her apron and turns to the fridge, “Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out.”

-

Kimberly arrives first. She has a grocery bag propped on her hip and a grin so wide Trini is momentarily floored by it.

“What the hell, Hart,” she deadpans as she moves to the side to let her in.

“We’re meeting your parents, we gotta make a good impression,” she says as she passes by, but politely waits for Trini to close the door and lead the way.

Trini narrows her eyes, “You’re acting weird.”

“Your _face_ is weird,” Kimberly retorts. “Now shut up and lead me to the kitchen so I can drop this. Can you believe I can’t actually _know_ if it’s that heavy anymore. Super strength is weird.”

Trini rolls her eyes so hard her head hurts but leads the way into the kitchen anyway. Mom’s standing by the oven checking her heating settings and the timer on her phone. She looks up when they both walk in and she focuses on Trini first and then on Kimberly and then back on Trini and her face splits into a grin.

“Oh, hello!” she says, coming forward, “You must be Kimberly. It’s so nice to meet you.”

“How do you know,” Trini starts to ask, and mom cuts her off with, “Patrick told me,” to which Kimberly says, “Who’s Patrick?” with a weird glint in her eyes.

“Patrick’s one of my brothers,” Trini answers.

“Oh,” Kimberly says, looking from Trini to her mom and back again. Before anyone else can say anything, she unprops her grocery bag and offers it to Trini’s mom. “We, uh, we all pitched in for this. I hope it’s okay— we didn’t want to just show up empty-handed. They, uh, the guys will be here soon, they’re convincing Billy’s mom to let him come.”

“That’s really thoughtful of you,” mom says, taking the bag and letting out a breathless ‘oof’. “Whoa, this is heavy,” as she takes it to the counter.

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Kimberly says apologetically, and Trini wants to snort, but doesn’t.

“Come on,” Trini says, tugging on the sleeve of Kimberly’s sweatshirt, “I’ll lead you to the epicenter of events.”

-

“Where are you sleeping while your room’s getting finished?” Kimberly asks as she looks around Trini’s mostly bare room. The bed frame’s leaning vertically against the wall, the mattress is outside in the patio under tarp, along with her dresser and most of the clothes from her closet.

She shrugs, sits at the edge of the window. “One of the twins will graciously offer their bed at the end of the day. Or I just take the couch downstairs. It’s comfy.”

“I didn’t know you had baby brothers,” Kimberly says with a tiny smile, and she sits down on the tarp-covered floor.

“I didn’t accept them as such until after their second birthday,” Trini returns, and they both laugh long and hard until they taper off into giggling.

Then Kimberly looks across the room to where the wall is still caved in. “Were they here? That night, I mean.”

Trini shakes her head. “They were at our grandma’s. We’ve got cousins their age, they were having a sleepover.”

Kimberly exhales loudly, almost in relief, and nods. “That’s good,” she says, and Trini nods back.

“It hasn’t been easy, the last couple weeks? Patrick has nightmares from time to time, wakes up in the middle of the night in a panic, because they’d been watching the news while everything happened. Dave’s...” Trini blows out a breath, clutches at the window banister. “Dave asks about it, sometimes. Gets in my face with seven-year-old persistence and asks why Rita picked our house first.” She huffs another breath, “I still have nightmares, too. Not about the fight, about Rita, in my room in the middle of the night. Of Billy falling into the water and not being able to pull him out. It’s pathetic.”

Trini wonders, suddenly, why it’s so easy to share these things with Kimberly. They’re still virtually strangers, as they stand. The few facts Trini has about her are based on the few weeks they’ve spent training, and it’s pretty superficial. And here Trini is sharing this stuff with her— stuff she hasn’t even addressed on her own.

Maybe teaming up to save the world together and nearly-almost-dying is good cause for trust, or something close to it.

Who would’ve thought.

Her palms are sweaty on the windowsill.

“It’s not pathetic,” Kimberly says in a soft voice. “Nothing you just said is pathetic.”

Jason, Zack and Billy find them both sitting close together by the window, Trini showing Kimberly baby pictures of the twins while she coos and nearly buries her nose into Trini’s phone’s screen.

-

Dad comes in a bit after the guys and lays out instructions, easy ones, for everyone to do something. Zack and Jason are in charge of sanding— Billy, Kimberly and Trini of priming the already sanded wall.

The twins don’t make an appearance until they’re almost half-way done with their respective walls. Dave leads up to whoever he’s closest to— Kimberly— and asks, “Was your house picked by Rita, too?” and Patrick scurries off to where Jason’s trying to step over the paint to point a finger at him, “You were in the news with Beefcake.”

They all break into laughter and cahoots except for Kimberly and Dave who’re having what looks like a very serious conversation. Trini itches to get closer and listen but Jason’s shocked expression turns out to be more pressing when Patrick continues with, “You look taller on TV.”

Zack nearly stabs himself with a stray paintbrush with all the laughing. Billy sticks to his work on the wall while chuckling and Trini shrugs noncommittally at Jason when he turns at her.

“Kids have no filters,” she says, and turns to continue on the wall.

Mom walks in at exact the same moment Patrick opens his mouth to probably say another filterless thing, “Patrick, Dave, food’s at the table.” She smiles at their scurrying heads and then everyone focuses on the tray of sandwiches and OJ.

“Thank you, Mrs. Trini’s Mom,” Zack says through a mouthful of cheese, ham and bread and mom rolls her eyes at him, obviously charmed, and says “You can call me Evelyn, guys,” before taking the tray back with her to the kitchen.

They all call out thank-you’s and get back to work, still somehow all laughing at Jason’s contrite expression and mutters of “I’m _tall_ , okay.”

-

(Trini asks Kimberly what she and Dave were so seriously talking about when they see the guys off and Kimberly waits for her sister to drive over.

Kimberly smiles at her gently, “He was telling me that he was really worried about you that night.”

Trini looks away. “Ah.”

Kimberly adds, “He says he’s glad you have friends who have your back now and help you with things. And that when he grows up he wants to be the Pink Ranger.”

Trini huffs and nudges her, “That’s a lie, he told me he wants to be the Yellow Ranger, okay.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Kimberly shrugs, and when she nudges Trini back, she doesn’t really move further away, so they wait for Kimberly’s sister just like this, arms close together as they sit at the curve and watch cars idly pass by.)

-

At the shelter a couple of days later, Zack opens a lunch box and presents each one with a wonky-shaped, steaming dumpling. It’s pretty early still so they must be freshly made— Trini bites into hers and nearly sobs at how savory it is.

“Oh my god,” she says in between chewing, “oh my god, this is so good.” Around her, the guys make equally pleased noises and offer their souls to the wonders of Zack’s culinary skills when he says, “I made them myself, glad you’re enjoying it so much— Jason, do you need a room with yours or something—?”

“They’re really, _really_ good,” Kimberly says, licking the remnants of dumpling off her fingertips. Trini secretly loses a hundred years of life at the sight of that. “I wanna learn how to cook.”

Zack grins at her, “You know, it’s my mom’s recipe, she felt alright enough to supervise the pots, even. You guys wanna come over this weekend? I could teach you the basics.”

“I’m in,” Kimberly nods eagerly. “Can we make a thousand dumplings?”

“We’d need more than a weekend,” Billy says, “to make that many. And I suck at cooking, I burnt cereal once.”

“I’m not surprised” Jason tells him with a tiny, fond smile, and everyone chuckles heartily.

Billy huffs. “I die for y’all and this is what I get.”

-

Kimberly texts Trini Saturday morning and says, _hey, you wanna get tgt so we can buy supplies and stuff for lunch ? you think zack’s mom likes or can have chocolate cake ? what is proper etiquette for asking that kinda stuff ?_

Trini stares at her phone for a couple of silent minutes and then sends back, _you really don’t like showing up anywhere empty-handed, do you_.

The reply comes but Trini doesn’t see it till five minutes later, after she’s managed to roll off and away from Dave’s asleep octopus grip.

 _i really don’t, come on, come with me :(_ is what Kimberly has sent, and Trini rolls her eyes, heading for the shower.

 _fine_ , she sends, and: _i’ll meet you at 11 at grocers. ask zack if his mom has any food restrictions, we can go from there. gonna shower now, see you later._

Kimberly replies instantly again, _ooh will do. have fun in there :)_ , and Trini laughs as she closes the door.

-

Zack sends Kimberly a list of stuff that his mom can have and a list of hard no’s. They settle for pumpkin pie— after Kimberly has hounded the baker for the actual ingredient list and nearly demanded a play-by-play of the making of said pie— and a fancy spread of lavender cookies.

Kimberly has borrowed her eldest sister’s car, so they load everything (except for the pie and cookies which Trini holds in her lap) into the trunk and drive off towards the trailer park. It’s quiet in the car, comfortably so. Trini stares out the window and catches the slow progress of the town reparations; the worst of it is still closest to the center.

“Still feels pretty surreal, huh,” Kimberly asks. They look at each other for a second before she looks back at the road.

“I don’t think it’s ever gonna stop feeling surreal,” Trini says. “A lot happened— bad and good.”

“Yeah,” Kimberly agrees, and they’re quiet again until she says, “Hey, remember that night with the bonfire?” Trini hums in assent.

Trini braces for the worst, because it’s how things go, usually. Even now, at home, when things feel a lot less stilted and her parents look speculatively at her over dinner after the guys head out, Trini still feels like she needs to be braced for the worst when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Then Kimberly says, so quiet under the rumble of the somewhat old engine, “You _are_ with us, now. You have us.” Quickly turning to look at Trini, who feels almost made of putty. “We are friends. You know that, right?”

“I know,” Trini says as they turn into the park and make out Zack’s and Jason’s silhouettes down the road. “I know that now, Kim.”

-

Zack’s mom takes one look at the cookies and says, in accented English, “You touch these and I will disown you, Zack,” and they all cackle at the betrayal in Zack’s face, his dramatic pout as he diligently puts groceries away. She smiles at all of them and thanks them for the pie and the cookies and wishes them the best with Zack as their cooking teacher.

Trini likes her, a lot, her strong presence and the no-bullshit attitude.

It’s cramped in the tiny kitchenette but they make do. Zack puts them all on different tasks and to everyone’s surprise, the one who takes easiest to cooking is Jason. Kimberly gave up half an hour in when Zack said, “ _Thin_ slices, Kimberly, _thin_ ,” and was demoted from knife to spoon duty; as it is, she’s only needed when Zack needs to add a spoon of anything into the pots.

“I like following instructions,” Jason shrugs when everyone starts ribbing him.

“Is that why you were on the news,” Trini wonders.

“You steal a bull _one time_ ,” Jason groans.

“What _did_ you plan on doing with Beefcake, though,” Billy asks as he slices a cucumber so thin Trini can see through it.

“I honestly can’t remember now,” Jason tells them, waving his spatula around. “Look, I did my time, story’s over now. Chop, chop, Trini, I needed those carrots three weeks ago.”

“Testy,” Trini grins, and hands the cubed carrots over. “Beefcake’s a sore spot. Got it.”

“Hey, Jason. Wanna take a trip to Pamplona? Lots of bulls to steal over there,” Zack smiles sweetly, and Jason groans as loud as everyone laughs.

-

Kimberly offers to drive both Billy and Trini home while Jason waits for his dad to pick him up. They each get a tupperware container of home-made dumplings and spicy tofu stew. Billy sits in the back and the three of them bicker back and forth over whose cooking skills are best, like they have anything to compare them to after one afternoon.

Kimberly stops the car in front of Billy’s house and Billy spends a moment just staring out at it through the window, making no move to get out.

“Sometimes,” he says slowly, unlike him, “I wish I could tell her I know what dying feels like. I wanna tell her it’s painless— that he went without pain, as quick as blinking.”

Kimberly grips the steering wheel and stares straight ahead. Trini turns as much in her seat as she can, finds Billy’s eyes on her already. “Billy,” she says carefully, “I don’t think that would go over well.”

“I know,” Billy says after a moment of looking out the window again. “I know that.” He grabs his food and pushes the car door open, “See you guys Monday.”

Kimberly nods back at him, Trini sends him a tired smile, and then they’re both back on the road to Trini’s place.

It’s quiet again but it’s tensed this time. Trini, not one to take things sitting down, says, rather loud in the quietness, “What is it, Hart. We have ten minutes till you reach my place, so out with it.”

Kimberly huffs and shakes her head and Trini, able to turn in her seat to look at her, finds her gaze wet and slightly panicky.

“What is it,” she asks again, worried now— and isn’t this _new_ , worrying about someone outside her family. “You can tell me.” Kimberly tells her nothing, so Trini insists, “We’re friends, you can tell me.”

Kimberly says, “I don’t think you’ll wanna still be friends if I tell you.”

Trini nudges her over the gap between their seats. “Hey, drive to the quarry. Don’t feel like going home yet and you don’t look like it, either. Besides, I don’t wanna share my dumplings with the twins.”

So Kimberly switches lanes and drives out of town and into gravel and they park the car at the highest stop overlooking the city. Sun’s not down yet so everything out here looks like dipped in orange-golden light.

They sit quietly in the car and Trini says, “Kim,” and Kimberly tells her.

Kimberly tells her about Amanda and about Ty and about the picture. Her fingers are still loosely holding the steering wheel, and as she speaks, they shake. She says, “I wanna— I wanna be a better person. I don’t want that one thing to define me anymore.”

She huffs a wet, tired laugh. “You know, back when we couldn’t morph— I told Jason about it. I felt like I needed to be honest with someone, so I told him. He said I wasn’t a bad person, but how could he know?”

Trini feels distantly sorry for her. It’s not a nice feeling to have for someone who you’re starting to consider close— someone you like _this much_ , Trini’s brain says— but there they are.

“Jason stole a bull and destroyed both public and private property, I don’t think he’s qualified to tell you shit.” She blows a breath, looks out the window. “Look, who the hell am I to judge. You say you don’t want that to define you anymore? Then don’t let it. Take it, learn from it, and be better.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Kimberly says.

Trini shrugs. “Didn’t say it would be. You shouldn’t expect it to be easy, either, ‘cause it won’t.” She winces a little and lets out a sigh. “Look, I’m not good at— at this, comforting thing, okay. I cannot do that for you that well, but I can be honest.”

“I know that,” Kimberly says quietly. Thank you for that, Trini, really.” And then: “I like that about you.”

“Oh,” Trini says very eloquently. And they grow quiet as the sun sets.

-

(Kimberly parks outside Trini’s drive and takes her hand, says, “I like a lot of things about you,” and slowly— almost desperately slowly— closes the distance between them. Her lips are dry and chapped but warm, soft.

It lasts all of three seconds, and when she pulls back, Trini stares at her for another three.

“You choose now to do that,” she tells Kimberly, somber.

Kimberly winces, “I’m a lot more work-in-progress that we both thought.”

“Get out of here, Hart,” Trini says as she and Zack’s borrowed tupperware get off the car.

“See you Monday,” Kimberly smiles sideways.

“Yeah, Monday,” Trini returns, and heads inside.)

**Author's Note:**

> also, whoever came up with the twisted and incomplete arc for kim, i have words for you, pal, meet me in the parkin lot.
> 
> oh, and i made up trini's mom's and sibling's names. i tried googling but didn't find anything, so point out if they actually do have known names.
> 
> thanks for reading, leaving kudos, or commenting, or all the above :)


End file.
